nip/tuck spinoffs

I caught up on part two of Nip/Tuck's fifth season. The relationships still evolve like those in a soap opera - every time I think they've exhausted every ridiculous possibility, I'm invariably surprised again. Some of the episodes from this portion have been pretty impressive, though, recalling the design of the show's golden years that engendered its palpable empathy.



Still, Nip/Tuck wouldn't be Nip/Tuck without some obligatory sensationalism, and the hit-or-miss inclusion of "contemporary issues" sparked further investigation. Here are two that reminded me of stuff worth sharing.

Number one: Objectum sexuality. People who love objects instead of other people.



This is Erika Eiffel, a woman who "married" the Eiffel Tower. Dietz told me a few weeks ago about a documentary he'd seen featuring a world-class archer who was in love with her bow, but broke up with her bow (Lance) and married the Eiffel Tower. I found these chunks of it on youtube, albeit peppered with peanut-gallery annotations.





Number two: Cryonics. Not an entirely new idea, but it seemed like Nip/Tuck did a pretty good job portraying its specious econoscientific status.



The dubiety in the episode reminded me of an broadcast of This American Life I heard a couple of months ago. If you have 45 minutes to kill, it's absolutely worth a listen. The episode is about half-assed apologies, but the central story focuses on a guy named Bob Nelson of the Cryonics Society of California and his involvement with cryonics around the 1970s. The story devolves into a bizarre, heartbreaking, disturbing mess.

http://thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=354

Skip the boring first portion, but after the cryonics story, keep listening to the last section for a nice relief. It's about a famous poem (and homages to it), "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, that's rooted semi-apology. And it makes me hungry for plums.



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a trend.

23 years ago, an amateur fossil hunter discovered something in a fossil pit near Whocares, Germany. For reasons unknown (my guess is he's a jerk), he kept it a secret until three years ago when he decided he wanted some money (probably bet against the Steelers). He sold the object via a third party to a Norwegian paleontologist for an undisclosed, less-than-one-million-dollars amount. The object was kept a secret so it could be studied closely.

Until yesterday.

The object:


Darwinius masillae, or "Ida."

The Internet:


crapping its pants.

Seems like guy-with-line-through-the-o-in-his-name wanted to earn back some of that undisclosed, less-than-one-million-dollars amount, because the scientific paper on Ida was released in tandem with an enormous publicity campaign including a jazzy website and some ridiculous quotes. Hurum says,
"It is the scientific equivalent of the Holy Grail. This fossil will probably be the one that will be pictured in all textbooks for the next 100 years."He also compared the future museum display to the Mona Lisa (which, of course, it will remain for the next 100 years). Even the guy who narrates Planet Earth needs a change of underwear.

Point: This is a great discovery. The hyperbolic reaction just needs some abating.

That said, I look forward to learning more about my great Aunt Ida



and the continued webwide reaction to her discovery.

nuke the phones

Man microwaves cell phone.

just in case

The place has other shirts, too.